Immediate Help & Essentials

Crisis Cleanup is the shared hotline that faith-based and voluntary disaster organizations use to coordinate after storms. You call once, describe what you need, and your address goes onto a map that participating relief groups work from.

They can often help with: cutting and removing fallen trees, tarping a damaged roof, removing debris, and hauling out wet or destroyed contents.

This is completely free. Volunteers are not paid and will never ask you for money. Anyone who quotes you a price is not with Crisis Cleanup.

Two honest caveats: help is not guaranteed and depends on how many volunteer teams reach the area, and it can take days. Call as early as you can. Keep working your insurance claim in parallel — do not wait on volunteers.

The REALTORS Association of Northeast Wisconsin has secured up to $150,000 from the NAR Relief Foundation for people affected by the July 2026 storms.

This is a grant. You do not pay it back.

Up to $1,000, and what it covers depends on your situation:

• If you own your home — a mortgage payment
• If you rent — hotel costs, the costs of signing a new lease, and temporary housing payments to family or friends you have been staying with

That last one is worth reading twice. If you have been sleeping in a relative's spare room and giving them money toward it, that is an eligible expense. Most people assume it cannot be, and never ask.

You do not have to be buying or selling a house, and you do not need an estate agent. This is a disaster relief fund that happens to be administered by the REALTORS association.

How to apply

1. Fill in the application form (a fillable PDF)
2. Gather what the documentation checklist asks for
3. Send it in as directed on the form

If someone can personally attest to how the storm affected you, a third-party verification form is available and speeds up the review.

The fund is finite — $150,000 across everyone who applies. That is not a reason to panic, but it is a reason not to leave it until next month.

The Red Cross typically opens or supports shelters, distributes meals and cleanup kits, and provides casework for households whose homes are destroyed or badly damaged — including some immediate financial assistance.

Call 1-800-RED-CROSS (1-800-733-2767) or use the mobile app to find services near you.

Community Clothes Closet is still listed by Winnebago County as a pickup point for clothing and supplies for those in need. If you lost clothing in the storm, or cannot get to what you own, go and take what you need.

Client shopping hours: Monday, Tuesday and Thursday 10:00 a.m. – 12:45 p.m., and Monday evening 6:00 – 7:45 p.m.

The extra storm hours they ran in the first week (29–31 July) have ended — these are their normal hours. Worth confirming before a long trip.

Their phones are not working reliably since the storm. If a call does not go through, email [email protected] instead.

To donate: they need essential clothing and financial gifts to keep up with demand. Donation hours are Monday to Friday 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. and Monday evening 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. Gunderson Cleaners also accepts donations on their behalf — preferably in bags rather than boxes, three bags maximum.

The Fox Valley Veterans Council runs a Veterans Emergency Fund that can cover housing, utility payments, clothing, food, transportation and other high-priority needs.

Money is paid directly to the creditor, not to you — so apply with the bill in hand.

Even if they cannot fund your request, they connect every veteran who applies to other resources. That is worth knowing: applying is not wasted effort if the answer on money is no.

Who can apply

• A DD214 showing discharge under conditions other than dishonorable, with at least one day of Active Duty beyond training.
• Veterans with a VA Service-Connected Disability who can document it may also be considered.
• Copies of the bills you want considered.

Hmong veterans, and interpreters — please read this

The Council can recognise someone as a veteran by a two-thirds vote of the council, where that person served the United States in a military capacity and was in combat or under imminent threat of combat — even without a DD214.

Their own by-laws give the examples directly: members of the Hmong community who served the United States in a military capacity in Vietnam, and interpreters in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

If you served the US that way and have always been told you are not eligible for veterans' help, you may be eligible here. It is worth asking.

Where the fund reaches

Because of funding and capacity limits, the Emergency Fund covers Outagamie, Winnebago, Calumet and Waupaca counties, and nearby Northeast Wisconsin counties by exception. Menasha, Neenah, Appleton, Fox Crossing and Grand Chute are all inside that area.

How to apply

The online form is fastest. There is also a paper PDF application that they convert to a digital one for you.

If the form is hard going, they will help you complete it — over the phone, at LEAVEN, or by appointment at their office. Ask; that offer is theirs, not ours.

In-person meetings are by appointment, generally 10 a.m. – 3 p.m., Monday to Friday. The online application is open at any hour.

Catholic Charities provides mental health counseling and peer support, and says it directly: no person is turned away for inability to pay.

920-272-8234 · CatholicCharitiesGB.org

In person at the LEAVEN Community Resource Center, 1475 Opportunity Way, Menasha — the same building many people have already been to for financial help — or by video call if getting there is the problem.

Worth knowing

You do not have to be Catholic, and you will not be asked to be. Peer support means talking to someone who has been through something similar, which some people find easier to start with than a counsellor.

If you have been putting this off because you assumed you could not afford it, that assumption is the thing this entry exists to remove.

In immediate danger? Use 988 or the Winnebago County Crisis Line on 920-233-7707, both 24/7. This entry is for the weeks after, not the worst hour.

The Greater Fox Cities Habitat for Humanity ReStore is running "No One Rebuilds Alone" — storm-affected households can take essential home recovery items and pay what they are able.

How it works:

1. Bring a valid form of identification
2. Select the recovery items you need
3. Pay what you're able

That is the whole process. There is no means test to fill in beforehand and no proof of damage to assemble.

5402 W Integrity Way, Appleton · 920-830-8400

A ReStore carries building materials, tools, appliances, cabinetry, doors, windows, fixtures and furniture — the things that get expensive fast once you move from clearing up to putting a house back together. Worth ringing ahead to ask whether what you need is in stock, since it varies with what has been donated.

Les Stumpf Ford is offering two forms of help to anyone affected by the storm.

Free shuttle service. If you cannot get to a doctor's appointment or pick up essential prescriptions, call and ask for Shuttle Service. Transportation is provided within the Fox Valley for essential medical needs.

Donation drop-off and pick-up. Stop by during business hours to donate, or to pick up supplies if you need them. They are collecting and distributing:

• Bottled water
• Cleaning supplies and disinfecting wipes
• Work gloves
• Contractor trash bags
• Paper towels and toilet paper
• Flashlights and batteries
• Diapers and baby wipes
• Non-perishable food
• Gift cards (grocery, gas and home improvement)

Pillars provides emergency shelter and helps people find safe, affordable housing. Winnebago County lists them for households displaced by the tornado.

920-734-9192 · 605 E Hancock Street, Appleton · PillarsInc.org

Why this is a different thing from the overnight shelter

Appleton North High School is a bed tonight. Pillars is the organisation that deals with the next question — where you go when a congregate shelter closes, and how you get into somewhere of your own with no deposit and a damaged rental history.

The county is unusually candid about the difficulty here, and it is worth repeating: the Fox Cities had a serious housing shortage before the tornado, and it has not improved. Nobody is going to place you in a flat next week. Getting into the queue early is most of what you can control.

You do not have to have been homeless before to call them. A large share of people displaced by a tornado have never needed a housing service in their lives, and that is not a reason to wait until things are worse.

The Society of St Vincent de Paul covers several of the gaps that are hardest to fill three weeks in.

• Gas cards and bus passes. If the problem is simply getting to work, to an appointment, or back to your own house to clear it
• Household goods, clothing and furniture from their thrift stores, given rather than sold, based on a conversation about what you need
• A food and hygiene pantry at the Neenah/Menasha location

You can apply online, for either location, using their Financial Assistance Request Form — and the form exists in Spanish (Formulario de Solicitud de Ayuda Financiera).

Neenah/Menasha — 920-727-1766 · SVDPNeenah.org Appleton — 920-739-1679 · SVDPAppleton.org

Volunteers meet with people to work out what is actually needed, so it is a conversation rather than a form-and-wait.

If you have been rehoused with nothing in the house

St Vincent de Paul's national disaster arm runs a programme called House in a Box — furniture, bedding and some appliances, packed as a kit and shipped to a household's new home. It is arranged through a local organisation rather than by you directly, so mention it when you speak to them, or to your case manager if you have one. SVDPDisaster.org

Team Rubicon sends trained volunteer teams into storm-damaged neighbourhoods to help homeowners stabilise their properties.

All of their work is free. Their own description names who it is aimed at: people who are uninsured, underinsured, or financially vulnerable. If you have been putting off work because you cannot see how to pay for it, this is the call to make.

310-640-8787 · TeamRubiconUSA.org

What this is and is not

They provide reliable labour — the muck-out, the tree off the roof, the tarping, making a damaged structure safe to be around. They are not a building contractor and will not rebuild your house.

They are a national organisation and their teams move between disasters, so availability is not guaranteed and can change week to week. Ring and ask rather than assuming.

Nobody from Team Rubicon will ask you for money. If someone claiming to be with them asks for payment or a deposit, that is a scam — see Avoid Scams.

Also try Crisis Cleanup on 844-965-1386. It is the shared hotline that several volunteer relief organisations work from, and putting your address into both raises the chance that somebody reaches you.

World Relief Wisconsin supports refugees directly affected by the tornado. The county lists them under housing, basic needs and legal services, which in practice means one organisation that will take the whole situation rather than one piece of it.

920-231-3600 · WorldRelief.org/Wisconsin

What they do

• Needs assessment — someone sits down and works out what you actually need
• Case management — one person who knows your situation, instead of explaining it again at every office
• Referrals into the other help listed on this site
• Document recovery
• Housing assistance
• Basic needs assistance

Why document recovery matters here

If your household arrived as refugees, some of your papers cannot be reordered from a county clerk. Immigration documents, resettlement paperwork, records from another country — losing those to a tornado is a different and much harder problem than losing a birth certificate, and it is worth going to people who deal with it specifically.

This does not replace the ordinary routes. For a Wisconsin birth certificate, driver's licence or Social Security card, see "Replacing lost vital documents" under Insurance & Money — that is faster for anything the state itself issued.

Winnebago County lists Calvary Bible Church as a cooling and charging site. Somewhere to get out of the heat and put a charge on your phone.

The county publishes no hours for this site. Ring ahead rather than turning up on the strength of this page.

If you came here for supplies

That has ended. Through the first weeks after the tornado this was also a supply point — non-perishable food, water, clothing, hygiene supplies, diapers, wipes and cleaning supplies, from door 15. The county no longer lists any of that here.

Those supplies are still available, just elsewhere:

• Jefferson Early Learning, 105 Ice St, Menasha — water, non-perishable food, cleaning supplies and personal hygiene items. Resource pickup daily 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m., and showers daily 6:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.
• Mill City Church, 120 N Lake St, Neenah — water, plus resource totes with non-perishable food, outdoor cleanup supplies and personal hygiene items
• Community Clothes Closet, 1465 Opportunity Way #B, Menasha — clothing and supplies
• St. Joe's Food Pantry, 1465A Opportunity Way, Menasha — groceries and personal hygiene items. Monday and Wednesday 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m., Tuesday and Thursday 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Other cooling and charging sites

Appleton North High School · Christ the Rock Community Church (regular business hours) · Elisha D Smith Memorial Library, Menasha · Neenah-Menasha YMCA (5:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m.) · Neenah Public Library

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is offering free help across three things the county lists separately:

• Home repair knowledge — advice and practical help working out how to put something right
• Loading and unloading boxes if you are relocating. This is the one people do not think to ask for, and it is exactly what is hard when you are moving a household you did not plan to move
• Basic care needs, and mental health and religious care if you want it

773-766-5667 · churchofjesuschrist.org

You do not have to be a member of the church, and nothing here is conditional on becoming one.

These are the locations Winnebago County currently lists as accepting donated items:

• Dairy-Air Brewing — 217 S Main St, Seymour
• Gunderson Cleaners — any of their Fox Valley locations. They take clothing donations on behalf of the Community Clothes Closet
• Kunes RV of Green Bay — 1751 Wildwood Dr, Suamico, during business hours
• Life Church, Appleton campus — 222 W Franklin St, Appleton

Call ahead if you possibly can. What each site can take changes from week to week, and a site that is full has to turn things away or store them at its own cost.

Money goes further than goods

Relief organizers have been consistent about this since the first week, and it is not a brush-off. Cash lets an agency buy exactly what a specific family needs, in the right size, at the right moment — and it does not need sorting, storing or transporting by volunteers who are already stretched.

Give through United Way Fox Cities.

If you have something specific and substantial

Large, high-value or unusual items — appliances, building materials, furniture in quantity, a vehicle — are worth a phone call rather than a drive. Contact United Way Fox Cities or 211 and describe what you have. Matching a big item to the household that needs it works far better than dropping it at a collection point.

Anything genuinely worn out, broken or dirty should go to the tip rather than a donation site. Sorting unusable donations is a real cost that falls on volunteers.

This has changed. Do not turn up expecting the old setup.

Through the first weeks the Club ran as an all-day walk-in site with a shower trailer, lunch and dinner, and take-home supplies. That has ended. Youth programming resumed on 10 August and the building is back to being a youth club.

Care packages are still available, but they are arranged by phone:

Ring the Home Base team on 920-750-5822 to coordinate support and pickup.

The county published calling windows of 8:00–9:00 a.m. and 4:00–5:00 p.m., Monday to Friday, for the week of 10 August. That week has passed and no newer windows have been posted, so ring and leave a message if nobody picks up rather than driving over.

If you need a shower

• Jefferson Early Learning, 105 Ice St, Menasha — showers daily, 6:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m. This is the closest replacement for what the Club used to offer, and it also does resource pickup 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
• YMCA of the Fox Cities — Apple Creek, Appleton, Fox West, Heart of the Valley, Neenah-Menasha, Ogden, and Valley Tennis Center. The Neenah-Menasha YMCA (110 W North Water St) runs 5:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m. No membership needed
• Fire Fitness locations
• Planet Fitness — 697 S Green Bay Rd, Neenah, and 2700 W College Ave, Appleton

If you need supplies

• Jefferson Early Learning, 105 Ice St, Menasha — water, non-perishable food, cleaning supplies, personal hygiene items. Daily 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
• Mill City Church, 120 N Lake St, Neenah — water, plus totes of non-perishable food, outdoor cleanup supplies and hygiene items. Open until 4:00 p.m.
• Community Clothes Closet, 1465 Opportunity Way #B, Menasha — clothing and supplies
• St. Joe's Food Pantry, 1465A Opportunity Way, Menasha — groceries and hygiene items. Mon/Wed 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m., Tue/Thu 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Only the portable toilet remains here. It is still on the county's list.

What has ended

Through the first weeks this was a cooling and charging site with water, non-perishable food, basic supplies and a Cellcom charging station, entered from the Washington Street entrance. Winnebago County no longer lists any of that here.

Where to go instead

To cool down or charge a phone, the county's current list is:

• Elisha D Smith Memorial Library, 440 1st St, Menasha — the nearest to here
• Neenah-Menasha YMCA, 110 W North Water St, Neenah — 5:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m.
• Neenah Public Library, 240 E Wisconsin Ave, Neenah
• Christ the Rock Community Church, W6254 US 10/114, Menasha — regular business hours
• Calvary Bible Church, 1450 Oakridge Rd, Neenah
• Appleton North High School, 5000 N Ballard Rd, Appleton

For supplies, see Jefferson Early Learning (105 Ice St, Menasha — daily 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.) or Mill City Church (120 N Lake St, Neenah).